But Experts Say Detente Is Safe

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
October 19, 1973

The recent resumption of war in the Middle East has not threatened the United States-Soviet Union detente, two Government professors said yesterday.

Adam B. Ulam, a Soviet foreign policy expert, and Robert R. Bowie, an expert on American foreign affairs, said that the current Arab-Israeli conflict showed no signs of weakening relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Ulam said that if Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin had flown to Cairo as reported, it indicated that serious attempts were under way to resolve the Middle East war through a joint U.S.-Soviet effort.

Ulam said that the United States and the Soviet Union excluded the Middle East from the detente because neither nation could control the existing situation. Ulam said that "both the nations realized that if the Mideast erupted, then the rules of the game were void."

Bowie said the he "thought the idea of detente had been oversold." He said that the detente did not mean complete cooperation, but only a "live and let live" relationship. A competitive relationship still exists between the two world powers, Bowie said.

Bowie said that both countries should exert their influence on their Middle Eastern allies to bring about a peace settlement as proposed by the United Nations in November 1967.